Events

Connect

News & Public Affairs

Tuesday March 31, 2015

Researchers, boaters, fishermen and public officials are confirming that thousands of fish and animals on the bottom of the Gulf are dead or dying in an area that encompasses more than 2,100 square miles from Pasco County to Sarasota. Its being called a dead zone. Officials from the Florida Wildlife Research Institute and Mote Marine Laboratory say the event likely is tied to the recent and persistent red tide bloom followed by low levels of oxygen in the water.

The rural sociological society is holding their annual conference in downtown Tampa this week. WMNFs Andrew Stelzer sat in on a presentation about Environmental Justice, and brings us this report.

The main topic of the session was the location of hazardous waste facilities, and the statistical tools which are used to find out how much more often they are placed in area where poor people or minorities live.

Sarasota area congresswoman Katherine Harris, who formally declared that she is running for US Senate this week, was in TampaÃ¢â¬â¢s Hyde Park neighborhood this morning, as part of her statewide listening tour.

SOUND
ACT
"I hope im elected, but the only way ill be a great senator..id to fight the good fight...'

ACT
"this is Patrice barbar.we saw the bus...this lady is the greatest.."

In front of Gorrie elementary school, about dozen women and children stood arou...

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of an American Soldier who died in Iraq last year. Since then, the Northern California woman has become a vocal critic of the war and of President Bush Ã¢â¬Â¦..

But with the President on vacation in Crawford, Texas until September, the mainstream news media, looking for news, has found one in the poignant story of Sheehan camping next to the PresidentÃ¢â¬â¢s Ranch .

Sheehan says wonÃ¢â¬â¢t leave until she gets a chance to meet with Presi...

Our guest was U.S. Army veteran and former diplomat Ann Wright. She's with a group of about fifty peace activists and families of Iraq War victims who are asking to meet with President Bush during his vacation in Crawford. They've been holding a vigil since the beginning of August three miles down the road from the entrance to the Presidential Ranch. Their concern is that the President doesn't have a plan for bringing the war to an end and that this country is even less safe now that the coun...

There are four challengers to incumbent Ernest Williams district 6 seat on the St Petersburg City Council. One candidate, Maria Scruggs-Weston held a press conference last night to formally announce her bid for the city council.
Jen Germaine files this report.

ACT (MS-W)
Maria Scruggs-Weston stood in an empty lot three doors down from her home on Melrose Ave South. Her south St Petersburg neighborhood, in what is called mid-town, is marred by crime. Only feet from her home, where two ...

Our guest, Haitian novelist Edwidge Danticat (ANACAONA; THE DEW BREAKER) recently wrote an op-ed pice for the Miami Herald describing the 90 year history of U.S. intervention in Haitian affairs. Beginning with the 1915 invasion under President Woodrow Wilson, Danticat describes the failure of the U.S. to take part in establishing democratic institutions. She writes that "While it takes American leaders and their armed enforcers just a few hours, days, weeks, months to rewrite another sovereig...

The central park village housing projects have been slated for destruction for more than 5 years, but several attempts at planning what to do with the land and the people, including the Civitas plan in 2004, have failed to gain enough public and private support to move forward.. Today, the committee charged with selecting a proposal for what to do with the 60 acres of land in and around the housing projects heard the only proposal that is still on the table. WMNFs Andrew Stelzer has the sto...

Tonight the Hillsborough County School District is poised to approve a 5 year building plan. But that Plan will put the District in a deficit estimated at $364 million dollars.

The question then becomes, how does the District close that gap? The St. Petersburg Times reported today that school officials are poised to campaign for a referendum for a half cent sales tax that would raise $80 million dollars a year to build new schools and repair old ones.

On August 6 and August 9th, 1945 the U.S. military dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing World War II to an end. More than 120, 000 people were killed immediately, and twice as many would die as a result of injuries sustained during the blast. This weekend, groups like The Religious Society of Friends gathered to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the bombings and to celebrate the sacredness of the human soul. HereÃ¢â¬â¢...